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My pussy willow, not an easy or low maintenance tree to keep small. I have had this one for a long time. I keep it in this lilly basket in a half filled bucket of water, I have to trim the roots every few weeks and repot every year. It has been more of a challenge than a beautiful tree but I...

At last and only just in time for a mega re potting this weekend, our club managed to secure 44 bags of cat litter, here is my own haul of a mere 4 bags!

I dont think my 50 year old orchids are as spectacular as usual but still not a bad display, I did split one pot last summer and I will do the other big pot this summer.

Difficult to keep in prime condition! However a lot of these exotic plants cost less than a bunch of flowers and will last at least twice as long!

Yes, in fact they both flower three or four times a year but always punctual for Christmas! The closer one is probably 40 years old, the other one is only about 5-6 years old. The older one has huge thick stems and I trim it regularly throughout the summer, the other one had yet to be trimmed...

Christmas cactus were looking good on Christmas day!

Tim, here is a good example post 293 Post Your Pics & Videos of the Great Outdoors

We have loads of them where I live, many are hundreds of years old, dating back from when they were imported to help with our boat building industry. The tree can develop very tight bends in their branches and this feature was important to the boat builders . Hundreds were cut down by the...

Our club put on a display at one of the summer agricultural shows.

This one is around 40 years old, it has been in the old mixing bowl for two years as I am trying to add a bit more hight.

I have always got a few earmarked wild trees, I will visit them once or twice a year, drop some fertiliser around and trim back the foliage. I even water some south facing ones every few days in a heat wave, it is not always worth the trouble as many just dont work out or die after digging them...

Our little club, like many other Bonsai clubs, dont encourage members to post pictures of valuable trees on line, as theft is a world wide issue.! Most expensive trees are two heavy for one person to carry and most wont fit in a standard car so I dont feel the threat is very high where I...

I have a few trees, I have owned hundreds over the years as I have been collecting and growing bonsai for around 50 years. I have reduced my collection to around 20 trees and none of these are very valuable although I have looked after four of them for 45 years. The shortage of hard cat litter...

I love Magnolia trees yours are a deciduous variety which means you can trim them back around September but be warned they dont like being heavily cut back. If you know an experienced tree surgeon they will know how to encourage back budding so you can re gain a proper shape. Done properly your...

My lipstick just starting to flower.

Full bloom with over 30 flowers

I have not re potted my Paphiopedilum as yet but they are back in flower….

I have got a lipstick plant that is quite old, around 12 years I think. It lives inside in the winter and I keep it trimed back every spring before it goes in my outside party house. Also had some early cactus flowers, almost finished now ….

Yes the Kiwi fruit was a huge growing crop in Guernsey, for a few years anyway, you can still find them for sale on the hedge rows in late summer. We used to eat them like a boiled egg by cutting off the top and scooping out the inside with a tea spoon. Lovely taste if perfectly ripe, with...

I harvested my chillies this morning, defenatily the best outdoor crop for many years. Many of my garden plants have suffered this year from the heat and lack of rain but the chillies have loved the weather. I bought the majority from the B&Q sales bench for 50p a pot but I did grow two plants...

@dw1305 I will take some more pictures next time I am there, unfortunately the once plentiful and lovely plant description signs have been vandalized so there are not many names left on display !

Darrel, your garden looks great, I love dragon Lillys, I saw one yesterday in a public garden plus a few other interesting plants ….

Right as usual! Elephant garlic but not very garlic tasting more like a leek. Italian lily, hates bright sun and can grow in very shady areas. Horse radish, very easy to grow but expensive to buy!

Quiz , what are these outdoor plants?

Its like the grass is always greener as we dont get moles where I live but I would love to see one!

Lucky for you guys, no rain for me !

We are heading for a drought in Guernsey, everything on the surface is dry down to 4-6 inches, hoping for some April showers as otherwise I am going to have a huge water bill!

I noticed the first buds on my Willow bonsai, also potted two big srubs that someone kindly donated for future bonsai and started re planting around 200 Jersey lilies, or Amaryllis belladonna bulbs that I dug up from elswhere in the garden ….. so all in all a busy day in the garden ….

My giant Kangaroo Apple, plenty of fruit appearing too…. Definitely the biggest weed I have grown!

OK thanks, I bought a pot from B&Q last year and it has grown like a weed, the one in the picture is just a cutting that I hung up to see what would happen. I have a feeling it will really take off this coming year, no heat just in my outdoor party house.

Well what I plan to do this year is dived one pot (as you suggested last year) into four pots. I cant actually see any form of soil in the pots but I will pack the the divided plants with sphagnum moss and hope for the best. All I did last year was add a little liquid seaweed a couple of...

@dw1305 , I have this funny cactus thing in flower too?

My Paphiopedilum are looking good this year, I did intend to split them up but never got around to it!

Well the centre in question normally keeps their skips out of sight but back in October I noticed a skip in the car park and it was full pf plants! Sarah was going mad at me for embarrassing her by rummaging around but I did not feel guilty in any way, happy to save a few pot plants and glad to...

Well I am unlikely to buy one, I prefer the skip outside…. even if I did get shouted at last year for rummaging in it but, four months later and my freebees are doing fine!

I spotted this plant in our local garden centre, offered at half price in the January sale. I dont know anything about it apart from it is expensive!

@sparkyweasel I do apologise for my mistake, you are probably right perhaps you can help me out and find a better picture of a genuine wild one growing on a tree?

It seems to me that Christmas cacti are for sale everywear! They belong in the genus Schlumbergera, which is named after the 19th century French collector Frederic Schlumberger. Christmas cacti are native to the mountainous regions of south-eastern Brazil, specifically the state of São Paulo...

Christmas cactus in full flower …

Maple and Bay…

Note my chamber pot collection.

My two Christmas cacti being obliging …. (Both kept in cat litter)

Yes a real seasonal treat with a soft texture and delicate flavour with the added bonus of being the safest to collect of all the wild mushrooms.

Waste not want not….

Good season for mushrooms but this is the first time I have actually found giant puffballs in my garden!

Hawthorn will readily bud from the base you just need to encourage it to do so. Morts advice is sound. Thin out the top section with secateurs, cut out every other branch and cut back the length of individual branches to make each one stand out as a single item. Best done in February March...

Yes you really want the tiny little feeder roots and it is a bad time of year too, best dug up in Feb March time. Many of the most spectacular bonsai derive from what Is termed as (in the UK) ‘Field grown‘ and collected as a tree rather than grown from seed. I have many trees in waiting, trees...

They are very popular and desirable stump bonsai material, I am always on the look out for Privet and Box stumps! They can sell in raw form, with plenty of white root, for £50-100 + but a well tended stump say after 10 years of training can sell for big money ! Here is a picture I just picked...

I think that stump would of made a fantastic bonsai!

The Stag Horn fern seems to be a slow growing plant under the conditions it is being kept, but it does apear to be very healthy. When it does grow, the growth is rapid just restricted to just a couple of months a year.

Ha ha I would never get away with that!

I always like to find a stinkhorn, they are very interesting and quite funny! When I was young, my friend ‘Steve’ found a stink horn and bought it around to my house to show me! He went onto become a doctor and for the last 35 years I have called hIm Dr Stinkhorn…

I found this in my garden today….

I had a big green ride on at one time, I cant remember the make but it had a two forward speed gearbox And could go really fast (15mph?) Anyway, I decided to sharpen the blades (big single deck) while still in place so i made a one sided ramp and drove her up an an acute angle. I used a 4”...

I use a Husqvarna it is OK, I had the mulching blades fitted so no grass to pick up. It has never been easy to start, it does always start but never straight away. I had a Honda before and that seemed to be a much better built machine, it cost me £1200 it lasted about 15 years and i still got...

Nice growing and flowering conditions over the last few weeks have really set the garden on the move, my mountain maple has come into leaf and the bay is nice and green. Can you spot the red admiral resting on the wall top left ...

Better get some gloves on and the secateurs out!

We have had wet weather too but ridiculous amounts of high wind that has had some very negative effects in some parts of my garden.

That is a big pond snail!

My mountain acer coming into leaf, I have grafted this tree many times over the last 20 years. It started off as a shop bought bonsai in a pot but I planted it in the gound about 35 years ago and then dug it up when I moved house and replanted it on my patio boarder. It does look a bit battle...

Good advice from Mort, they are pretty tough once you have found a good spot to keep one. They will hate dry, hot wind, you want a very sheltered spot! I use hard cat litter in all my potted plants mixed with varying amounts of soil depending on the plant. I would go at least 50% hard cat litter...

I have been having problems with this Beech tree as it has been dropping leaves mid summer. I collected it many years ago as a field grown tree but it peaked around 7-8 years back and I dont know what is wrong so I am moving it in front of a west facing wall where it will be very sheltered and...

Instant bonsai for those of you with no patience ! l collected these two willow branches just 11 months ago, all the new growth was from last summer. Willow has the amazing abittity to sprout roots from virtually any off cut or fresh cut branch. Just a few more years and they will be nice...

Thank you Darrel, well found and appreciated.

Thanks Darrel, I think they might need dividing into four pots as they seem very crowded, I might just split one pot in a few weeks time and leave the other for the time being? I was shown exactly where they were kept in the summer and winter so I feel ok about where to place them in my garden...

Yesterday I inherited these two pots of orchids, what I know is the original single plant was purchased at least 40 years ago but possibly more like 60 years ago. The pot was placed in a cold green house and eventually filled 6 pots but the lady has now died taking any futher information with...

I am just building myself a new cook stove .....

That looks great Paul!

Well here is a nice garden addition... I was lucky to be given a good budget for this one!

Raymond Evison is an Island character, he does a lot for charity and is a regular on our locale radio station, he has a very appealing voice! I can’t remember how many Chelsea flower show golds he has won but I think it is some sort of record.

Where I live we are lucky to have one of the worlds largest clematis developers. About 10 acres of glasshouses are dedicated to the production of the beautiful plants, they have regular open days and I must say I love to visit! There are people who look and talk more like doctors or surgeons...

It is a worry, i will have a root check tomorrow ....

I have one that is at least 35 years old, it has given hundreds of plantlets to my family and friends over they years But.... this year it looks sick! The leaves seem to be shrivelling but conditions are the same as it has been for the last decade? Something is wrong! I fear for its life!

Candie Gardens feature some of Guernsey's more notable trees including the second tallest Canary Palm in the British Isles ( the tallest of which is elsewhere in Guernsey ) and a 200 + year old gingko which is said to be the sixth largest in the British Isles! I seem to remember this one...

I have featured this tree before but the Ginko tree in Candie gardens looked like it had shed gold leaf on the ground this morning!

My Halloween vase...

Nice flower this year and one of my little trees...

looking Better now

Well done, I only know the names because I went on a guided walk with “The Men of The Trees’ and that was 30 years ago but I think I remember most of the main specimens. Most of the mature tree were planted in the mid 1800s when the cemetery opened for business. There are many dignitaries and...

This might help ?

Back from the cemetery with a few phone pics....

It must of come as a seed in a bag of New Zealand sphagnum moss that I bought from Amazon during the lock down. I normally buy my moss from B&Q and I am sure it is treated to avoid introducing non native plants but obviously not the one from Amazon! I use the moss in my bonsai soil mix.

Ok I have an ID one for you ... what is this plant?

I have mine outside all the time now, it is growing but not that fast, I will offer him a banana tomorrow..... (Top right)

I just spoke to my friend via Facebook, I have not actually seen him for 30 years, he lives in Perth and said there are hundreds on staghorns all over the place. The one he has lives in a tree in his back garden and (jokingly) said it actually eats banana skins in a few days ! Apparently in the...

Thanks Darrel, looks great! it seems a common practice to drape a banana skin over the main body! I have not done this as yet.... what do you think ? I have an Australian friend who told me he feeds his giant with banana skins every two weeks. Ha said it must of consumed hundreds of them!

Yes Darrel it is a Tilia platyphyllos large leaf lime.

Yes it is a big leaf lime tree, not as common as the small leaf variety. Its true age is not known but suspected to be around 275 years old . It is truly spectacular, so complex and dense and seemingly alive with movement and sound. There are several trees in the cemetery that I don’t know...

Not really a garden tree but I wanted to show you this beauty that lives in a local cemetery, anyone want to guess what it is and it’s approximate age?

Fantastic Darrel! Do you have a picture?

@Ady34 that is a lovely Acer Palmatum , they can survive for many years in the same pot but I would re pot it and cut back some foliage . If you dont want it to grow any bigger then just use the same pot but rake out the root ball and use 50-50 cat litter soil mix. I plant 95% of my potted...

I have been putting my staghorn fern out and hanging it on a north facing fence . I put it back under cover at night but I think it could now stay out for the next few months? It is growing really well, I have sprayed it with tank water a few times but I want to start fertilising it with...

Not my garden although in theory I do own one sixty five thousandth of it! We went for a walk in the park yesterday, well in Candie Gardens actually. The gardens were mainly planted around 200 years ago and contain some lovely specimen plants and trees. The house and gardens were left to our...

Well I got the flipping thing out it’s pot,I had to use a fulcrum and strap to lever it out the pot! Anyway I cut the root ball in half with a saw and combed out the top 6” of roots. It is now in a slightly bigger pot sitting on top of a bag of vermiculite and surrounded with ericaceous soil...

I am now quite confident my plant is a rhododendron as I found a few pictures on line of poorly specimens M My plant is the centre picture, they seem quite difficult and sensitive plants to look after, it might be a challenge to get it back into shape....

Rhododendron maybe?

I don’t think there is any soil left in the pot, it is just a mass of roots! I don’t really want to feed it at the moment but I have a feeling a bit of nitrogen and sun will turn the leaves a dark green. The trunk does not have a rough bark but is not smooth like a camellia or magnolia, sort of...

While out driving yesterday we saw this large pot plant on the side of a road with a “ free to take away” sign on it! Luckily we were in my van so between me and the misses we got it in the back. It did have a lot more dead wood and brown leaves that I have cut away and I believe the colour...

If anyone is into bonsai you may well of heard of Peter Chan, he is so unassuming and offers so freely, his amazing wealth of knowledge with a very extensive youtube library, books and face to face if you visit his premises. It astounds me that people criticise him, his work, his methods and...